Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1887-05-02

not only of our own great commercial
prosperity. but even of our own NUM-
cipal towns. Craft guilds at first con-
tanned both master and workmen; when
masters became capitalists they formed
guilds of their own, and the workmen,
for mutual protection, united among
themselves. The live capital and the
dead capital stood face to face often in
antagonism, out always in the end re-
conciled either by wise arbitration or By
wise and just laws.
Ii is a notable fact in our English his
tory that these guilds, with which the
imperial laws of the Continent dealt so
oppressively. were always recognized.
Incorporated, and chartered by laws APP
proved by the Kings of England. 1t
would seem as if the temperate. liberty
loving, and law-abiding spirit of our
race, so long as equal laws prevailed,
rendered all such organizations inno-
cent, safe, and fruitful to the public
welfare. 1t must not be forgotten that
our most ancient cities were formed by
aggregatlons of crafts and guilds; we
still possess the statuets to such guilds
dating from the eleventh century. There
are twelve guilds in Normandy, twelve
in Kings Lynn, nine in Bishops Lynn,
Canterbury had three, Andover had
guilds and guildhall, York had three,
and Beverly had four, but in London
there were seventy. London is believed
to have been the birthplace of guilds,
and the Constitution of London was
based upon guild and served as a
model for other English towns. Ac-
cording to the Judicia Civitates Lun-
donii, in the time of King Athelstane,
the firth guilds of London united into
one guild, which governed the town and
gave laws not only to members but to
non-members living in the city. The
liveries or companies of the City of
London are seventy-four and are evil
IDENTIFY the old traditional guilds from
which the old municipal law of London
sprang. We have said that so long as
these organizations were recognized and
protected by equal law the peace and
the progress of industry was maintained
and the live and the dead capital joined
] hands in common welfare. Towards
the end of the last century the doctrines
of political economy, under the plea of
free contract, brought up the old rela-
tions between the employer and the en-
| ployed aud the conflict between capital
and labor became perpetual.
The power of capital is all but ire
sistlble, for the poor must labor for the
bread of life; hunger lays the necessity
upon them for the sake of their homes
and themselves. When law ceased tc
intervene, organizations for mutual de-
tense straightway arose. The Knights
of Labor and the English trades unions
represent the rights of labor and the
rights of association for its defense.
The power of capital may be estimated
from the facts that out of more than 1OC
strikes not more than five or six have
ended in favor of workingmen. Their
dependence is so absolute and the
hunger and sufferings in their homes,
of weak women and innocent children,
are so intolerable and imperious that
| the conflict between the live capital and
the dead is most unequal, and the free
dom of contract in which political econ.
omy glorifies itself hardly exists. It is
surely, then, the office of the church to
protect the poor and the labor which
| has built up the human commonwealth.
Cardinal Gibbons carefully guards the